Thursday, 19 January 2017

CIA publishes 13 million pages of declassified documents online

The Central Intelligence Agency has published nearly 13 million pages of declassified documents online. These documents were previously physically accessible only from four computer terminals at the National Archives in College Park, Maryland.

The published documents shed light on the agency's activities throughout the Vietnam, Korean and Cold War conflicts.

It also includes documents pertaining to purported UFO sightings and the organization's "Star Gate" program investigating possible psychic abilities and what could be done with them.

The archive touches on the CIA extensive history as an organization, from its inception up through the 1990s. "None of this is cherry-picked, It's the full history. It's good and bads" said CIA spokesperson Heather Fritz Horniak. Although the documents are declassified, redactions do exist throughout the millions of pages.

The redactions -- which Horniak describes as light -- were done to protect sources and methods that could potentially harm national security, she explained.